The Lives of the Lost
by ai deidara
Summary: AU. If the world lived under the rule of fear and lies in a wasteland distressed by war, there are no cracks for light to shine through. Gradually, you realize living in fear is not really living at all, and when life becomes a desperate fight for survival, your only instinct is to run. — SasuSakuNaru, eventual SasuSaku; Pre/Post-apocalypse


**disclaimer-**

naruto © masashi kishimoto.

themes pertaining to fallout (videogame series) © bethesda softworks, zenimax media, obsidian entertainment, etc.

any quotes used belong to whom they belong.

basically, i don't own anything other than the plot and any OCs i integrate into the story. don't sue?

**dedications-**

bethesda/zenimax/anyone involved with fallout, post-apocalypse, sweet tea, and angst.

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**(_if you want to wait to read this section (tldr?) until the end then feel free to, but i'd recommend reading beforehand {for future reference} depending on how sensitive you may or may not be_.)**

**genre**- tragedy ; angst

**subgenre(s)**- drama ; romance ; sci-fi ; pre/post-apocalypse ; dark

**pairings-** SasuSaku/NaruSaku, eventual SasuSaku.

_**warnings-**_

**o1 ; major AU -** like in Fallout 3, the setting will be in the US, and some settings will be made up.  
**o2 ;** **inspirations -** heavily inspired by fallout 3, conspiracies, government, war, the future, etc.  
**o3 ;** OOC. minor-mild use/implications of drugs & alcohol.  
**o4 ;** swearing, violence, and eventual character death.  
**o5 ;** characters that don't have surnames in the manga will have non-japanese surnames.

_**notes-**_

**o1 ;** although most of the inspiration for this fic comes from Fallout 3, it's not going to be exactly like said game. it's a crossover because i'm going to include several factions (raiders, BoS, etc.) and major themes from Fallout (and i don't want to violate anything by NOT adding the fallout 3 fandom), but not characters from the game. nothing's set in stone, however.  
**o2 ;** relationships will _not_ be rushed, as i'm not fond of them. if you're here looking for an automatic SasuSaku or NaruSaku, or any other pairings then you'll just have to be patient. come on, it's apocalypse. D:  
**o3 ;** i'm not sure when exactly sasuke will be introduced to the story, but it _for sure _won't be at the beginning. just a little heads up. it's kind of sakura centric for a bit, with some other characters of course. ah well, you'll see. :)

so basically if you're not into anything like that (or a potentially slow-moving fic) i don't recommend reading... obviously. there may be more stuff i haven't mentioned in the warnings, but it's rated M for a reason. and if it ever happens to get taken down i always have lj, and i'm getting an invite to Ao3 apparently sept 3, 'cause i patiently waited instead of asking someone for an invite... of course i didn't really know i could do that until i saw a community on lj. xD

i'm sure this is boring, so...

onward! :D

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**word count -** 3925

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**the lives of the lost**

**one - feeling of foreboding**

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_"because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are."_

_bertolt brecht_

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Day - Tuesday the Twenty-seventh, the Day of Thanks

Month - November

Year - 2153

A young woman who was perhaps barely eighteen years old, focused on the reflection of herself in a filthy, cracked, moth-eaten mirror. She brushed slender fingers through long, rosy pink locks, a sigh escaping her pale pink lips. Her heart raced rapidly and pounded against her chest each time she made eye-contact with the mossy-like eyes that stared back at her. They looked almost empty—too dark for comfort, yet, contradictory in the way they made her feel safe, human—but the emotion held within them was binding. In situations exactly like the one she was in, they brought her back to Earth when she was sure she was lost in space.

Gathering her sweater into a bunch as she clenched her fists, she hesitantly looked away from her reflection and flung a ragged messenger bag over her head as it settled snug at her side, peeking in to make sure she had her supplies. She gazed down to see that her socks were good and tucked under her jeans before peering at a nearby door that looked as if it would fall off its' hinges any given moment. As she made the short trek to said door, she could not help but feel uneasy when she grasped the cold, wobbly handle—trying so very hard to ignore the chills that relentlessly crawled up her spine—and slowly turned.

So she looked back and drank in every detail as if it were the last time she would do so.

There was her bed, small and compact with a thin blanket spread out neatly; pink and patchy, and absolutely useless in the winter. There was her pillow, her mirror, and all the little things that comforted her so greatly in times of immense sorrow, and she felt ever so reluctant when she finally willed herself to walk out of that door.

Her name was Sakura Haruno. Her room... her family, and the place she once referred to as "home"—now just a place to hideaway from the corrupt minds of the people that put up an innocent facade; the world itself—although unified in what one could call _contentedness_, was slowly crumbling to nothing due to the slow and painful process of the darkness that is war. No one could keep up with it and no one could stop it. It was unpredictable and could take a turn for the worst if someone made a single mistake. And if that mistake did happen, what could possibly happen next?

The Nuclear War—according to Sakura's History teacher—better known as World War III.

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Sakura carefully stuffed a fork-full of powdered eggs in her mouth as if they would attack her at any given moment, grimacing, as the taste of the fabrication was unfamiliar no matter how many times she ate them. The eggs had a powder-like texture, and she _desperately_ tried to ignore the _familiar _taste of glue—Gods forbid her curiosity as a child. She breathed in before forcing down the rest of her "breakfast" and gave her mother—who was sitting directly across from Sakura in her little corner of the kitchen, wrapped up in blankets—a weak smile that said "they're disgusting, but I know they'll get me through the day", and set her plate aside.

"Do you need me to feed you, mom?" Sakura asked only as a gesture of politeness, not because she wanted to. They rarely got along anymore, and the only reason Sakura stuck around was because her mother was far too scared for her own good. She barely moved on her own. That, _and_ the fact that there was literally nowhere to go. Nowhere was safe enough to be established or to be called home anymore. But she _knew_ her father wouldn't want her to do the wrong thing. He didn't raise her twelve years to become a stuck-up, disrespectful teenager like some of the girls she knew from school. She might have been a bit harsh with her mother sometimes, but she was just trying to keep what little she had of her father in her thoughts. She never wanted his teaching to disappear even if he himself was gone, nine years and counting.

At war.

Sakura felt her nose start to burn and banished those thoughts from her mind, sensing her mother's gaze upon her as she fed the older pinkette.

"So... The viewing is today—at the school, I mean. After classes, we're all going down to the theater for a live viewing of the Vault ceremony in DC," Sakura beamed, voice cheery for what felt like the first time in months. Her mother's eyebrows rose in curiosity, head nodding for the younger pinkette to continue.

Sakura gazed at the antique clock hanging on the wall behind her, and when she was confident she had half an hour to spare, she continued with little hesitation.

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"Mom... Do you really expect me to go out there with the streets the way they are?" Sakura asked, eyebrows furrowed. She had to leave in the next five minutes if she wanted to be on time, but she was probably more concerned than she should have been. Paranoia was practically the bane of her existence.

Emerald orbs squinted to see between the cracks of her home's boarded up kitchen windows, which were cracked—some in a thousand pieces—from multiple attempted and _failed_ break-ins. She felt her mother and herself were far too lucky to survive all the insanity that surrounded them. Shivers slithered up and down her spine as she glanced all around what used to be her home town, but was simply now a military-run slave-town, and it was not the cold air seeping through the broken glass that sent the shivers.

Patrolling the streets of the little city of Timber Ridge were men and women of the military; armed with their weapon of choice, apparently "keeping the peace". Some were camped out at stop signs, others stalked around in front of homes in an intimidating fashion... Like a predator to its prey. The only thing wrong with that was they in fact were not keeping the peace; shooting bullets into whatever they wanted, at _any_ given time as if rules no longer applied to anything.

The ongoing and upcoming War was making life crazy for everyone... everything. There was no peace, but still so much judgment, and Martial law made no difference—if you could call it Martial law. Sakura, personally, liked to call it the Anti-law.

"Sakura... the Day of Thanks means exactly that, to be thankful for today. Haven't you seen the news? School's back in... it's been a long time since you've seen your friends. _And_ the local grocer will be opening back up, and maybe even more soldiers will be called in. Things are looking up," replied Sakura's mother softly in a tone that resembled a brainwashed victim, trying to sound as sure as she possibly could, though she knew herself, _and_ by the hesitance of the news reporter's voice that things were not looking up. She simply wanted to convince herself otherwise. To live in her own little world of false happiness. It was morbid, and, much like fear, couldn't be called living at all.

Sakura bit her lip. Her hands wrapped themselves up into fists. The words her mother spoke quickly snapped something inside of her, and she twisted on her heel to face the woman, "those sick soldiers will make everything worse..." She growled with narrowed eyes.

"School will be complete hell with no order, just a bunch of soldiers ordering everyone to their classes five minutes before their previous class even ends! And I highly doubt anything will be left in that store—I don't even think we could get away with a grain of rice!" Sakura shouted, unable to keep her voice low. She panted, and quickly attempted to regain her composure.

"Mom, come here," Sakura ordered softly, her gaze elsewhere in guilt as she urged her mother over and moved aside so the older Haruno could look out of the window.

"Look at what's going on. They've already... done away with two, most likely, completely innocent people, and there are most likely more to go. Face it... we're lucky we saved up on what we _could_... Those pigs are forcing everyone to get on their knees and beg just for a piece of rotten bread! Is this to be thankful for? Watching our neighbors and friends die one by one before our eyes?" asked Sakura, sighing as her shaking mother cowered back underneath the covers of her makeshift bed lying in the corner. The pink headed young woman clenched her fists further, nails digging into her skin nearly to the brink of drawing blood.

Lately all she could do was get angry at how much of a child her mother was in these times. The woman could at least _pretend_ to be strong for her daughter, no matter _how_ scared she was, but no...

She would rather live a _lie_.

"Just go to school, Sakura. There's your answer... It'll be fine..."

"You know... _Dad_..." Sakura ignored the way her mother flinched at her words. "He wouldn't let this happen. He would do something about it before it got too out of hand. But, you? Me? We're too late... We'll always be too late..." She whispered, eyes narrowed at the floor before she disappeared out of the back door, into the cold.

The feeling in her gut said it was the wrong thing to do, but she didn't turn back—deep inside, far past instinct, she felt staying would have been a bad decision in its own right.

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"'I do not know with what weapons World War Three will be fought with, but World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones.' Now... I'm sure any one of you have an idea of whose quote that could be, but first..." A somewhat short, thin woman spoke broadly, lightly tapping a ruler against the palm of her left hand. Behind her on the dark green board was written 'Shizune Kato - History, Science, and Medicine', a reminder to her students that she was there to teach, not to play around.

"It's a quote that undeniably shapes our future as if this man of great knowledge knew wha was coming our way, but, in the end... We all knew it would come down to it _just _by looking five feet around us. Take a look at the media," Shizune began, the class of nearly thirty-five showing impeccable signs of boredom. She aimed her ruler to the pictures hung on the board behind her and sighed.

There were old, languished posters of movies that were, long ago, aired in theaters: 2012, Battle: Los Angeles, Knowing, Armageddon, Deep Impact, et cetera.

"Movies, television shows, _video games_, and quite obviously much, much more," She continued. "You name it, they got it: tales of nuclear war, fallout, economic catastrophes, natural disasters of _monumental _proportions... It's all there right in the palm of our hands, but are the masses really going to think hard enough to see the truth? To realize that our minds are not as petty as believed to be?" She inquired. She saw movement in a crowded row of seats from the corner of her eye, and smiled.

"Professor Kato?" A young woman piped up from the third row of desks, politely raising her hand. Her voice was meek, almost inaudible due to the shyness that plagued her, but Shizune had, both, brilliant hearing and sight. She didn't miss a thing.

"Sakura," the older woman acknowledged, "I had a feeling you'd be among the first to speak. What would you like to know?" She asked, an encouraging smile on her face.

"Those movies are at least a century and forty decades old, give or take, and they're based on natural disasters, or alien invasions. We're clearly nearing the growth of a war nobody wanted to happen, or I think so..." Sakura murmured. Her voice was hesitant but her words were spoken truthfully. "Personally I don't think _war_is very natural, though it can be in its own right, so..."

"Indeed. Movies like those are there to instill fear into the masses. In other words, to distract your mind from what's to come. There have been false rumors of giant meteors and comets, X class solar flares, fire raining down from the heavens, so called "alien invasions", and especially the imminent ending of life as we know it in the year two-thousand twelve...

"Of course, me being who I am, I can believe in such things as meteors, solar flares, and events that are simply undeniable. I'm one of many people that grew up into an open-minded and scientific family. I'm a believer of extraterrestrials and the possibility that they could be heavenly light beings, or even something darker. Because when there is a vastness that is outer space, should it really stay silent for some billion years without a hitch?" Shizune inquired, pausing, inwardly chuckling at the blank stares she received from her students. She remembered when she was a young woman. It was exactly the same for her, but easier to believe, what with the slowly collapsing world of ignorance. The times may be getting harder, but without the media overshadowing the world in lies it was easier for people to believe in different things... Things other than terror and fear.

Things like the _truth_.

But there was only so much people could believe in without doubting.

"Well what happened in twenty twelve? Screw the end of the world. Wasn't it supposed to be the supposed "Golden Age"? A time of great happiness and peace or whatever? That's what our books say... Or is that all a lie too? But if it _is _true, what's up with all this forty year "mini-war" shenanigans?" A young man with wild, spiky blond hair inquired, resting his cheek on his enclosed hand in a bored fashion. His cerulean eyes glanced downward as he promptly made indents in his desk with his pencil, suggesting he could multi-task or was carefree.

"What very... Knowledgeable questions, Naruto... The Golden Age, ah... Allow me to explain a moment," Shizune glanced out of the windows of her classroom, dark clouds with a reddish tint gathering around the area, coating the already cloudy sky in a dark veil. Her eyes landed on the vast fields outlining Timber Ridge and she smiled. It was no wonder their little city was having so much trouble.

They were practically in the middle of nowhere.

"Be patient and imagine..." Shizune continued in a murmurous tone, tearing her eyes from the city, "that Earth is a projectile in the pocket of a slingshot: slowly, slowly, _very _slowly being pulled back into an era of darkness. It's been that way, sat in that single spot for a while, and in the year two-thousand eleven it was in the darkest era it could have ever been pulled into, though it was the few years before leading up to that. But now let go of the pocket. The projectile goes flying incredibly fast of course, though that should be clear the very moment you let go.

"Imagine now, as I said before, that Earth is the projectile, getting flung so fast from the darkness into the light. The Golden Age represents peace, but at a rate this fast the chaos must come first. The Earth has to _adjust_, as do the inhabitants on Earth. They get flung straight back through the darkness from whence they came, going through the trials and tribulations and sorrows _all_ over again, but then it happened... many conflicts ceased to exist.

"All sorts of sinning disappeared _with_ the era of darkness, the homeless and starving were blessed with food, shelter and general happiness... and those with sick thoughts found themselves with a feeling of sudden ecstasy: they could care less for the horrid things they once compared to something 'God-like'. Many stated it was like dying and going to Heaven. Just easier... Painless... From then on out, times were the easiest anyone had ever experienced..." explained Shizune softly, her eyes full of an enthusiasm only someone like her could hone. She folded her arms against her chest and watched as Naruto stared somewhat wide-eyed at her.

"Um. Shizune, you didn't exactly answer his question," came a rude yet proud feminine voice from the back of the room.

Shizune sighed at this particular student's behavior. The girl twisted long locks of exotic, violet hair around her pencil, and brown eyes rolled around innocently as if she did nothing wrong.

But, really, she did. Even if life outside of school was a wreck and rules could not quite apply to anything, they still applied to school. She insisted on calling her Shizune instead of _Professor_, _Ms. Kato_, or anything of the like, and usually spoke out in class without permission.

The girl did all the wrong things but was somehow _still_ one of the top students Shizune's taught—along with Sakura—in the five years she'd been teaching in Timber Ridge, so it was only natural that Shizune decided to give her a chance—even though she might have wanted to continue either way.

Once she started, Ami Davenport just wouldn't stop—not until she got what she wanted.

"Ami, please raise your hand before speaking," Shizune said sternly. She ignored the way Ami shook her words off with a wave of her hand. "Did you want to say something?" She asked sweetly—or as sweetly as a teacher could to someone as stubborn as Ami.

Ami crossed her legs at the ankles and coughed into her fist with a curt 'ahem'.

"Basically, I'm sure all Naruto wanted to know about was the forty years war. I'm going to go ahead and assume it's because he's _way_ too soft for his own good. He cares about all those strangers getting hurt when he shouldn't _at all_ when Timber Ridge is clearly suffering as well, and simply wants to know the cause of all the conflict. I mean, I guess I'm a little curious about how a war can last so long without the military finding some solution, _but_... I bet I could come up with something sooner than he could. _Oh!_ I'm getting carried away, aren't I?" Ami giggled in a sarcastic, obviously fake way, "floor's all yours, Shizune." She laced her hands together and leaned her chin atop them, elbows propped up on the desk. Flashing a smile that was the epitome of 'bratty and proud', she noted the way Sakura tugged on the edge of her sweater in frustration, and the death glares from Naruto.

Sure she was mocking him immensely. She thought he was too stupid for Shizune's class.

Sure the world consisted of nothing but war and strife among other things, but she decided she couldn't help the way she was.

_Sure_ she believed in karma. What goes around comes around, or whatever. It would come back to her tenfold, one day, but it hadn't yet so she just kept egging it on with not a single ounce of guilt.

Everyone deserves to feel powerful at one point or another.

...Right?

"Ami, please, no snarky comments," Shizune sighed once more. She could tell Naruto and Sakura were both getting riled up from Ami's heartless comments, but she couldn't let an argument break out, so she disregarded what Ami said for the better.

"I was just getting to the discussion about the war. Where to begin... Man, believe it or not, paved way for the war, even if they were in the midst of a great time. If there was one thing that did not change at all, it was the starvation for money and power, even if there was no war at the time. It was hidden in the shadows... whispers in the dark would be a simple way to put it. The year was twenty-one eleven, the month was November, and the day was the eleventh, when Mother Earth could no longer withstand the pressure building within herself from Man's doing... fracking, drilling and much more.

"It was then that Earth gave birth to two catastrophic earthquakes, both here in the United States. One in California, and one in the mid-west. They destroyed what seemed like everything, costing surely billions of dollars, and the death toll? Unspeakable amounts, solely because they were _unexpected_. No one had prepared. Along with steadily growing economic trouble throughout the world, this rendered the US incredibly weak, and governments waiting on the sidelines knew this was to come because of our ignorance. We were attacked, thus inducing the forty years war, which has barely come to an end only to be replaced by _nuclear_ warfare... That answer your question?"

The blond haired young man slowly straightened himself, swallowing hard as he nodded. He glanced around the classroom, many of the students staring blankly at their desks. He gazed over at Sakura who was nervously fiddling with the seams of her dark sweater.

"That wasn't in any of our textbooks..." Naruto breathed in a murmur, loud enough for his teacher to hear.

"It was, actually, until _your_ specific generation was born. I won't go into much detail, but what you are reading now is... is probably some form of a lie." Shizune explained, receiving confused looks from all around the room, "with the shape that our home is in now, I don't see a reason to hold back... it's all a matter of time. It could all end before we know it..." Just as she finished her sentence, a bell dinged loudly and echoed through the room. As if on cue, Shizune's classroom door was opened, revealing two tall men in camouflage clothing, armed with their tools of destruction. They stood in the doorway a moment, but did not stay long enough to do their job: gather the students.

"Go on now. You all don't want to be late for the viewing." Shizune smiled softly and headed back to her desk as her students sluggishly began walking to the theater for the live viewing of the President opening Vault One; a deep, underground safe haven built mainly to protect against a nuclear event, and supposedly the first one to be built—hence being titled _Vault One_. According to the news, many other Vaults reside around the country, though few are lucky enough to get their 'letters of invitation' to eventually enter the Vault. Those few are generally the elite, though it is not rare for the the low and middle classes to be given letters as well. Unfortunately no one in Timber Ridge was lucky enough to get an invitation.

In Naruto's eyes, they were pretty much all left for dead.

The thing with Vault One, however, is that it is supposedly the first one to actually open up.

Sakura grabbed her bag and found herself walking the opposite direction of the exit until she was standing in front of her teacher's desk. She just stood there for a moment, staring blankly at her shoes as Shizune gave her a questioning look.

"Sakura? You're going to be late."

Sakura's grip on her bag tightened as she tried to ignore the feeling of absolute _foreboding_. As her gaze slowly met with her teacher's, she silently wondered why she felt so out of place.

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**to be continued.**

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**notes-**

**o1;** hello, hello! i've been working on this for a bit and i finally feel accomplished with this beginning after doing some _heavy_ revising. it was probably boring, yeah, and i can see how people probably wouldn't like this sort of story, but i just want to get my ideas out there 'cause they're clogging mai brain. also, everything starts to kick off next chapter. :0

**o2;** also, since i don't recall Shizune having a surname in Naruto, i gave her Dan's since he's her uncle. :3

**o3;** _unfortunately_ there was something of an interlude i'd written out for the end of this chapter, and it was like an extra 800 words, but it somehow disappeared. i seriously thought i put it in this doc (and saved it somewhere else). /: but i'll rewrite it eventually, or maybe the ghost haunting my ff will give it back? :D

**o4;** buuut gawd, i get carried away with a/ns sometimes. /: to those that read them, you deserve a cookie. or two.

**o5;** and to end this annoyingly large a/n—i'm not going to lie and say "if u review ill upd8 lyk nxt week!" cause i probably won't update then because i don't use the computer often. i prefer quality over quantity tbh, but reviews are most encouraging, don't'cha know? :D so, feel free to leave your thoughts in a review. i prefer **constructive** criticism over flames and trolls (also let me know if you see any errors whatsoever, specifically two words sticking together _like_this. i hate it Dx ), but if you absolutely _must..._ go for it, brah. if you don't want to review but you like this so far, show me by faving or alerting or whatever you readers do. :3

**o6;** a/ns will probably never be this long again unless it's for review replies. xD

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**settings-**

Timber Ridge - city where Shizune lives as well as Sakura and Naruto, and their families.

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_o9.o1.2012_

_ai deidara_


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